Monday, September 16, 2013

First post for this format! There's lots of players now compared to last format! Maybe because the Spellbook-Dragons domination is over. This could also be the reason why Konami sanctioned our annual Open Championships that concluded yesterday. They allowed tcg cards to be used but they made the format to be a singleton/highlander with the exemption of OOPArts/HC/Gimmick Puppet! This will be the first time a highlander tournament is held and lots of players joined to try to win with their decks.Heard weeks before the tournament that Dragon decks were the best pick but was skeptical since you can only run 1 of each Dragon Ruler. My mind was completely shut-off from that idea. I admit I was kind of narrow minded with that so I originally planned to make a Chaos metabeat deck but was unhappy with playtest as a Storm or Dark Hole easily resets all my efforts. Tried Heroics to abuse Extra Sword but fails against staple traps. So i opted to use the Chaos deck instead though i'm not confident about it. Before the tournament started, I got to talk to my Jap friend Yuki and he asked me whether I would use Mermails. I asked him why would he assume that i'll use Mermails and he explained to me why. He convinced me to it so I quickly made a Mermail deck with his coaching. Thanks Coach!Philippine Open Championships 2013OCG/TCG allowed.Except Forbidden cards, all cards are LIMITED. This does not apply to Chronomaly/H.C./Gimmick Puppet cards. 6-round Swiss with Top 8 cutDeck Used: MermailsRound1: vs. William "Wslasher" Sy (Six Samurai) 0-x-0Game1: He opened with RoTA + Ascetism + Kizan. Wtf? Isn't this a singleton tourney? Luckily his backrow wasn't as godly as I was able to bluff his Shien to not negate my Abyssphere and made Trishula with it and Diva.Game2: RoTA + Dojo + Kizan. Wtf? Same as last game but he had Dimensional Fissure now and 2 backrows being protected by Shien. I drew Fiendish Chain, MST, and Royal Decree and set all three. His turn he attacked and I misplayed here when I activated MST to target DFissure. Shien negates it and I activated Fiendish Chain but he chains with Book of Moon to protect Shien. I should've activated Fiendish Chain first so that his Shien is forced to negate it instead of my MST and Booking Shien would have been no help there.Game3; Can't remember much except he had Vanity's Emptiness and I was able to get red of it.Standing: 1-0Thoughts: Seriously regretted about forgetting to main Gozen Match considering I had it sided.Round2: vs. Merix Bartolo (Dragon Ruler) x-0-0Game1: Drew 4 traps with Solemn but no monsters. I set all and ended. He set a monster and I assumed it was a Ryko so I used Dark Hole on it on my turn but it was a Dandylion. I ended then he summoned LaDD and I was forced to use Judgment. He summoned Debris and made Black Rose that wiped my field and lost from there. Game2: Rushed him while he still had no grave thanks to my Transmigration Prophecy.Game3: Tried to rush him again but he had Gorz. His Lyla took out a bluff instead of Breakthough Skill so I had an answer to his summon. Topdecked Duality got me Dark Hole that wiped all monsters except my Zenmaines which took his remaining 1500 LP.Standing: 2-0Thoughts: We realized Merix misplayed in Game 1 when he summoned LaDD then after it he summoned Debris Dragon. lol. Nevertheless, my initial mindset of Dragons not good in highlander is now changed.Round3: vs. Benn Alcantara (Dragon Ruler) 0-0-Game1: I think I really misplayed on this one + I took too much time to decide. I had Dragoon, Abyssteus, Foolish Burial, Salvage, and a Marksman in grave. The field I was able to develop was just a measly Dragossack + Armor Kappa to deal with his REDMD, Starform, Tidal, etc.Lost next turn as I had nothing to stop his summons. Game2: Time was called and I wasn't able to kill all his LP as needed.Standing: 2-1Thoughts: Bought food and water after this game. Stressed a lot as I was a noob to spend so much time thinking then only making a poor play.Round4: vs. (Chaos Dragons) 0-0-Game1: He started first with Maiden + Chalice to summon BEWD then Azure Eyes Silver Dragon. Opened with mediocre stuff so I just summoned Trooper to mill out stuff. I was confident I would be able to block BEWD since I have a Tragoedia. His turn he used Mind Control at my Trooper (wtf) and Monster Reborn on his Maiden (wtfx2!) All my opponents are so lucky wtf. Was able to save part of my LP at least and went on a grindfest from there as he summoned Felgrand Xyz with Stardust and the free BEWD. End story was, he had a monster, 4600 LP, while my last card was Avarice with no stuff useful on my graveyard. Returned Infantry, and Diva back to the deck and miraculously I drew both of them! Luck sided on me this time as I was able to kill him at that point.Game2: Rushed him as he looked like he drew bad.

Standing: 3-1Thoughts: Really thought I would lose the 1st game as he drew all his best cards like Reborn, Mind Control, BLS, Maiden, Ravine, etc. Late game he didn't have enough stuff to finish me off.Round5: vs. Gerald Hui (Dark World) 0-0-Game1: I summon Trooper, set BTH, ended. He summoned Snow, I use BTH, we laugh for a while, and he uses Book to save Snow. Turns out he had Foolish Burial that's why he summoned Snow. lol. He went downhill from there.Game2: He set 2 and a monster. I bet it was Morphing Jar. I drew Gorz and other stuff I can't summon so I just set a trap f/d His turn he set a third trap and flipped his monster which was really a Morphing Jar. He summons Sillva and Reborns my Gorz and attacks, only to face my Mirror Force! He tries to activate EEV to offer my Gorz but I said he cant since he just set that card so he uses Book on Morphing Jar instead (why not on Gorz?). My turn I picked off his traps 1 by 1, leaving the dead EEV and won.Standing: 4-1Thoughts: By this time, the top tables were all Dragon Rulers except for 1 Fire Fist deck which was undefeated. Inevitably, my next opponent would be a Dragon Ruler too.

Round6: vs. Junjun Agoto (Dragon Ruler) 0-0-Game1: Overwhelmed and I lost.Game2: He was able to set up Jewel Stardust and Vanity's Emptiness on his 1st turn. I was able to mill a Breathrough Skill so was just hoping to draw MST or Storm or Dust or Undine or Dark Hole or Vortex or any other stuff I sided in so I could start playing again. But no, they didn't come.Standing: 4-2Thoughts: Only two persons with 2 losses would get in the top 8. I had good tiebreaks (those who defeated me are all 5-1) so I'm hoping to get in and I did.The Top 8 players/decks for this highlander tournament are1: Joriel - Fire Fist 6-02: Chester Sombillo - Dragon Ruler 5-13: Junjun Agoto - Dragon Ruler 5-14: Benn Alcantara - Dragon Ruler 5-15: Yuki Karikomi - Dragon Ruler 5-16: Merix Bartolo - Dragon Ruler 5-17: Edsel Gozon - Mermail 4-28: Zaccheus Liwanag - Dragon Ruler 4-2So officially, I was wrong to think Dragon Ruler wouldn't do well in singleton. lol. On the contrary, most ppl were thinking that Mermails was the inferior deck in highlander. Top8: vs. Chester Sombillo (Dragon Rulers) 0-0-Game1: He went first, did plant stuffs and finished with Jewel Stardust, a few tokens, a set card, but no Dragon in sight. Did usual Mermail stunts and won.Game2: Had Gozen Match early and was able make Bahamut Shark to beat him to death. Special mention is the Vortex against his Gorz. Semis: vs. Junjun Agoto (Dragon Ruler) x-x-Game1: I Duality to get Reborn. He Duality to get Maxx C. Took too much time again to think of the best move against his Maxx C. In the end I let him get a +1 off his Maxx C to get rid of his Scrap Dragon. I weighed that it was the best move since I can't let Scrap stay at the field as it will kill me off. However, he pulled Kinka-Byo from Maxx C and took away my Foolish Burial from hand and the Armor Kappa I was relying on with his Trishula.Game2: 2 mins left until time is called. So I was forced to rush in order to get me a chance to deplete his LP hoping he drew bad. He opened very well though so again I lost to him. Final Standing: 3rd-4th. Got 8 SHSP booster packs and a regular game mat as a prize. Pulled 2 crap SRs. Why no Mikazuchi nor Duplicity? :(( Bad luck streak. lol I got a freaking Noriko from my CPZ1 entrance pack also. -_-The finals was Dragons vs. Dragons and ultimately, Junjun Agoto won the championships. Congrats to our 2013 WCQ rep for winning the 1st PH Highlander tournament!Here's my decklist for the tournament. (Assume everything is 1 of)Monsters:Mermail AbyssmegaloMermail AbyssteusMermail AbysslindeMermail AbysspikeMermail AbyssgundeMermail AbyssturgeAtlantean DragoonsAtlantean MarksmanAtlantean Heavy InfantryDeep Sea DIvaFishborg ArcherGenex UndineGenex ControllerMother GrizzlySnowman EaterAqua SpiritCard TrooperCardcar DTidalTragoediaGorzSpells:Heavy StormMonster RebornDark HolePot of DualityPot of AvariceSalvageFoolish BurialForbidden Holy LanceLightning VortexTraps:Bottomless Trap HoleCall of the HauntedTorrential TributeMirror ForceSolemn WarningSolemn JudgmentTrap StunFiendish ChainBreakthrough SkillAbyssphereSide:DD CrowElectric VirusRykoGreenkappaMobiusMSTSoul ReleaseTransmigration ProphecyGozen MatchImperial Iron WallLight Imprisoning MirrorDebunkDust TornadoMalevolent CatastropheRoyal DecreeI guess part of why I lost was I mained and sided a lot of backrow hate. Shows what I was expecting to go up against. Completely underestimated Dragons, lol. Well, that's it for this very long post. Thanks for reading!

Special congrats to Irwin's team Asiong for getting half of the top 8 placings.

The top cut was very tight as getting X-2 generally means you wont make it to top 8. Lots of ppl disagreed as everyone expected a Top 16 cut but maybe it would have been for the better so only the best scorers gets the chance for the championship. Less non meta decks to top too.

Well, here's my matchups for the event.

Round1: vs Dragons 0-x-0
g1 = Went first and proceeded to complete the Jowgen Kycoo puzzle. He used Heavy Storm and Book of Moon for my Jowgen when I chained Lance to Storm. He summon Tidal from a baby then forget he cannot attack with it and got nothing else to do.
g2 = Took a 1st turn EEV. I chained Judgment and dropped Batel but he got Veiler too. I was left with Soul Drain so I was still ok but he got MST after a lil' while.
g3 = Puzzle complete.

Round2: vs Machina Gadget 0-x-0
g1 = He got no backrow while I didnt have Spellbooks that can combo so I just made a Blader to kill his Gadget and stop his Fortress with BTH to stop any Xyz that would try to take down Blader.
g2 = He had Droll to stop me after I added Sefer with Batel and didn't have any other good spellbooks left. Took Storm and lost to too much advantage. He spams King Feral Imp and Giganto each turn lol.
g3 = Puzzle complete.

Round3: vs. 4-axis Fire Fist 0-0-
g1 = He tried sharking me (long story) but in the end... puzzle complete.
g2 = Lots of passing around (drew Fate+Fate+Sefer again) and setting monsters. By the time he set a 2nd monster I realize the 1st one could be Morphing Jar #2 so I also set my bad-drawn Jowgen. His turn he flipped and indeed it was Jar. So my Jowgen went back to the deck and was replaced by a Batel. After a while he was down by a lot of resources while I had lots.

Round4: vs. Prophecy 0-0-
g1 = Both our Batels got Veiler'd. But I have Kycoo early and he didn't have something to go against it.
g2 = Droll'd him. I had 2 Judgments drawn so I used 1 and a Secrets then he uses Droll too. I just set the other Judgment with Book of Moon to use in his turn. He wasn't able to come as I showed me he drew 2 Crescents in his first 6 cards. That's why I prioritize to side this card out when I side in non-Spellbook cards. Less consistency but less card conflicts.

Round5: vs. 3-axis Fire Fist 0-x-0
g1 = Puzzle complete.
g2 = He spammed a lot in his turn while I had no Maxx C or Veiler so he got an overwhelming advantage against my mediocre draw.
g3 = Puzzle complete.

Round6: vs. Dragons 0-x-x
g1 = Puzzle complete.
g2 = Puzzle complete but he toppled it using Heavy Storm, Dark Hole, and Blaster. Sad. But I thought it couldnt be possible that would happen again.
g3 = Drew Fate+Fate+Wisdom+MST. No monsters but I got Soul Drain and Solemn Judgment. I set both traps. His turn he set 2 cards also. My turn I drew Judgment Day. His turn he uses Star Sword, I chain Drain, he chain his set MST, I chain Solemn. After he drew he uses the other set MST to destroy Drain. He made Big Eye and set EEV. I drew Jowgen and he uses EEV. I summon Kycoo from deck and summoned Jowgen from hand. His turn he passed. My turn I drew Soul Drain. I felt I won already but his turn he used Dark Hole and proceeded to kill me using the baby dragons. Felt so sad about my luck compared to his.

Round7: vs. Mermail 0-0-
g1 = Puzzle complete.
g2 = He made Gaios and Kappa but I had Dark Hole then locked him out.

Top8: vs. Chito (Prophecy) x-0-x
g1 = He went first and he had everything set up. Star Hall and the puzzle.
g2 = My hand only had Secrets and Judgment useful so I got no choice but to do it. He didnt have Droll so I got early advantage. Game took so long with me winning using 3 Kycoos (1 is his that I got using Puppet) and a Star Hall with 15 counters. Time was called.
g3 = Last 3 turns :( He went first and used Judgment and Secret to add Wisdom then I use Droll. He summon Kycoo and set Wisdom. I summon Batel to Secrets that added Sefer but he used Droll to end my searching. I set Judgment, Wisdom, Sefer, and activated Star Hall. His turn I activated Judgment and he did a lot to summon Jowgen at end phase while also damaging me using his Kycoo. My turn I drew Veiler. My hand got 8 Spellbooks but all was useless since it was my last turn and I needed to inflict more that 1300 dmg to him. Tried to pump my Batel using Star Hall and Power but his last set card was a 2nd Wisdom. gg

If only I got more time I could have stalled and waited til I was able to get rid of his Kycoo since he only got 2 cards left in his hand while I got 8+. Well, cant do anything about that.

Here's my decklist..

Im so sleepy now so maybe I'll just edit this with my comments about this list later night.
Thanks for reading!

Thursday, May 16, 2013

Saw this new cards going around a Thai Facebook page.
It got lots of Shadow Specters spoilers. Most is not that notable except for this unconfirmed news...

War God Dragon Emperor - Yamata no OrochiDark / Beast-Warrior / FusionLv 8 / 2600 / 31002x War God monstersMust first be Special Summoned (from your Extra Deck) by shuffling the above cards you control into the Deck. (You do not use "Polymerization".) Once per turn, during your Main Phase: You can select 1 of your banished "War God" monster; Special Summon that target in face-up Defense Position. If this card would be destroyed, you can send 1 face-up "War God" monster to the graveyard instead. You can only control 1 face-up "War God Dragon Emperor - Yamata no Orochi".

You might think the summon from banish effect is useless since it is not that easy to banish a War God. Well, think again...

War God Princess - KushinaLight/ Beast-Warrior / EffectLv 4 / 0 / 2000If you control a face-up Beast- or Winged-Beast-type "War God" monster, you can Special Summon this card (from your hand). You can banish this face-up card you control; Special Summon 1 "War God" monster from your deck. Also, you can banish this card from your graveyard; Special Summon 1 "War God" monster from your hand. You can only use 1 "War God Princess - Kushina" effect per turn, and only once that turn.
Hopefully, the real effect becomes like LSS-Kizan's. Too bad her effect has a restriction like the Incarnate Dragons, otherwise, she could have a spam combo with Yamata no Orochi.

But still, her effect and her being a LIGHT Beast-Warrior is a welcome addition to the deck.
More War God cards please!

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Summon Maiden. Target it with Power. Summon BEWD! Too bad it's a "once per turn" only effect.
You can even target Maiden with Torah xD

Lv1 so can be easily summoned by Judgment Day. Now it is not that bad when you can only activate 1 spell after Judgment Day. Also, she may be able to stall your opponent since he'll need to attack her twice to get over her plus the BEWD that she'll be calling.

One more thing you can do.

Opponent's turn. Activate Judgment Day. Use Fate against 1 of his moves. Summon Maiden in the EP.
Your turn. Now, there's lots of things you can do with her.

1. Target her with Power. Summon BEWD. You now have a 4k atk field.
2. Target her with Torah. Summon BEWD. Sync her with Batel for Claiomh Solais the Hazehawk (Mist Bird Clausolas). Run over Clausolas target with BEWD. Cool 3k direct damage.
3. Target her with Torah. Summon BEWD. Sync her with Junon for a lv8 synchro like Blader.
4. Target her with Torah. Summon BEWD. Sync Blue Eyes Silver Dragon for the lols.

OR you can just let her stay there and be a wall that calls out BEWD every turn. :))

Downside is that you'll need to main 1-2 BEWDs. hahaha. Good luck drawing those.

Monday, May 6, 2013

Here's the things I like to share about my experience in Asia2013 Thailand. I wouldn't write a play-per-play recount of each of my matchups in the tournament but I'll tell you about new things I encountered on each round.

PS regarding my use of the word "NEW" here in this post.

It doesn't mean that I'm saying it's "original", "never before seen by any1", or etc. I'm just saying that it is new FOR ME as I haven't encountered it in an actual game before or haven't heard about it yet. I comment on it based on my understanding of how it works too so no promise that I'll get everything right. Pardon if you saw these before already or if my opinion on it is different from yours.

Tournament is a round-robin format. So everyone will get a chance to play each other much like the same way how Monster Rancher tournaments were played back in PSX era. No top cut. Champion is determined by point system. Here goes...

Deck Used: Prophecy

Round1: vs. Malaysia/Sam (Verz) Won 0-0-

The new thing here is the mained Iron Walls. Such a pain since I can't use Fate or Life or even Junon's effect, as if I can summon Junon anyway. You can still chain your Fate to remove it at once before it resolves though so can still manage even without MST. EEV is the real prob for me. A strategy against decks that can main/side EEV is to stock up on Towers so that when you get virus-ed you can still plan and make a comeback. Put in traps also that can stick around or has effects that can give you enough time that u can turtle behind it until EEV ends. Tower (calling Lily) and Rivalry won me the 2nd game even after I got EEV-ed.

Round2: vs. Singapore/Kenneth (Incarnates) Lose 0-x-x

Tsukiyomi pestered me a lot in the 2nd game when I was already beginning to lock him out. I messed up the Tower loop since I needed to use Life for the 2nd time to summon a third Jowgen. In long run I ran out of Spellbooks to fuel my Fate and got messed up hard when he was able Reborn Big Eye when I had Rivalry up when he summoned Tsukiyomi again. The 2nd game took so much time because of the back and forth with Tsukuyomi and me having nothing to attack him with so our 3rd game was played with timeout rules. No side decking allowed. I'm going first so I can lock him and win but I drew Jowgen plus 2 Wabokus, Warning, and no Secrets. He tries to damage me with the lv4 dragons but Waboku stops him. Sudden death is called and I so wished I could draw Kycoo just to attack Reactan and win but didnt draw him so I lose.

Round3: vs. Hong Kong/Brian (Prophecy) Lose x-0-x

His tech was Offerings to the Doomed. Its cool since in the mirror you usually just expect Fate and Wisdom being used against you in your own turn. Kycoo seals the opponent's Fate so whoever has him up wins in the long run (without Junon). So Offerings gives you at least a chance to eliminate Kycoo to open up your spells. It is also used to win the chain battle as you can chain it to Wisdom when he uses it to save his monster from Fate. As for his side, he used Cursed Seal of the Forbidden Spell. I opted for the pro-advantage card Retort but Cursed Seal has more stopping power if it goes through. It doesn't need you having the same card in the grave plus banning Secrets or Fate means gg. We wasted a lot of time in the 1st game so we barely ended the 2nd game in time. The 3rd game was played with timeout rules again ultimately leading to sudden death with me having no monsters drawn and him topping a batel.

Round4: vs. Korea/Choi (Incarnates) Lose x-0-x

Congrats to the champion! He was really good with his deck as he knows what he is doing and he plays very fast too. I was able to lock him with Jowgen but he knows Prophecy will take up 2-4 turns before a kill so he bade his time to set up a Blaster (through Tempest search) and an otk (through Tidal mills) then destroyed Jowgen and win from there. 2nd game I full lock him with Kycoo/Jowgen/DFissure. 3rd game he EEV me 1st turn and I got nothing so lost. Games 2 and 3 shows how going first gives major advantage in the ProphecyxIncarnate matchup.

Round5: vs. Thailand/Somsira (Prophecy) Lose x-0-x

He mained more Veilers, Maxx C, and a Droll, i think. I wasnt able to ask him after the tournament. He also mains Stoic of Prophecy. He used it on me to summon Formula Synchron to draw 1 and he also searched a monster. His drops Junon and Batel and was beginning to think he'll summon Starform on my turn to defeat me with flair but instead he used Batel and Formula to Xyz the new Herald of Faithful Light to return Veiler from his grave to hand. With the massive advantage he had, he locked me out of playing with Judgment Days and Jowgen. This was another show of how meta matchups are but this time with the mirror and it almost entirely relies on: 1) whoever goes 1st; 2) whoever doesn't draw sh1t; 3) whoever draws more Judgments; and 4) whoever has Droll. This time I drew the sh1t opening (Eternity, Master, Life, ONLY) so cant do anything with that.

This was the 2nd time I drew the Eternity+Master+Life ONLY opening (the 1st was during playtesting with Team Asiong and I said then it was unlikely to happen again, lol) and it looks like I be haunted by this since I drew the same sh1t hand twice on the tournaments (1 in finals, 1 in semis) last Saturday.

Round6: vs. Taiwan/CheFei (Prophecy) Win x-0-0

1st game supposed to be my win but I misplayed. I had Junon with enough Books, he had Jowgen/Kycoo lock, I had 2 Batels. I didn't include Power as a cost for Fate (a turn before Kycoo lands) to recycle it back to me using Alma to bait out his Wisdom on 1 Batel then use it again with Master on the 2nd Batel. Should have been able to bring out Junon to kill Kycoo. Mirror matches = mindfuck. 2nd game was a grind. Didn't open well but he did so he got Jowgen early but with only Batel. I turtled, saved Kycoo and my Spellbooks until it came to the time he ran out of Books coz I was always putting my Tower over his. 3rd game he didnt open well so I capitalized. This game shows how Toon Index is very strong in the mirror. Using Toon Index saves you from using up Spellbooks. You win the battle of attrition once your opponent runs out of Secrets.

Round7: vs. 2012Champ/Jeff (Incarnate) Win 0-0-

Wont be detailing much about this game. ^^
Book of Eclipse is boss. Rivalry is useless without Kycoo. And for me, Prophecy taking too long to kill is the deck's biggest weakness OR maybe the fact that you can draw sh1t is the real downside to the deck.

About the tourney format, I think the round robin works out fine but the tie breaker rules were a bit flawed imo. Although the ruling favored me and Sam (and I'm thankful for that), I still think that if I were in Thailand's position, I would be very sad to know I lost to guys to won fewer matches than me. I think it should be the number of match wins as first consideration when picking the winner of the tiebreaks.

Wow, this post became really long so I'll be ending it here. Comments and reactions would be appreciated. I hope I was able to share something to benefit you.

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Its been a 2 days since I got back home from the Asia Championships in Thailand. Wasn't able to post yesterday as I was rushing to go to a tournament where a 4axis FireFist was being prized. Luckily, I won the deck so the rush was worth it.

Mixed feelings is what I have for my results. Happy since I was able to at least bring home 3rd Place but disappointed also because I didn't improve from last year as I was also 3rd.

Lots of things to talk about such as the experience there, the friends (new and old), and the tournament, but for now I'll post about the loots I got from Thailand!

Sorry for the low-res picture. >_<

Noob as I was, I didnt exchange all my money into Thai Baht when I arrived so what happened was I ran out of money to get more cards and to buy souvernirs (sorry friends and family).

Does it look like I bought a lot? Almost half of the cards above are what I got from the Champion Challenge side event, so yeah, the only thing I bought was the Prophecy deck and a few singles and after that my pockets were almost empty. Special thanks to our Thai friend, Air, who was able to find and sell me a Prophecy deck with only 1 day notice.

And here's the actual prizes from the tournament. Sadly, no cards included. lol. So luckily, I am a proud owner of a pair of Asia mats. Thanks also to the Korean champion, Choi, who gave me a Korean Fire Fist mat for free!

Monday, March 25, 2013

Most of the Asia Qualifiers ended and it's almost a month before the big event in Thailand.

Let's talk about the winning decks from each country a bit.

Hong Kong - Prophecy

Spellbook Judgment Day is a bad card design that is really meant to be abused. Drawing it with Junon/s and a good mix of spells equates to 2-3 turns of massive advantage. Lucky if u live through it all and they depleted their Spellbook stock. Easy to side against them though as Droll & Lock manages to stall them by a turn while EEV spells doom all over. Too bad Rose Archer needs a plant field to be used.

Singapore - Incarnate Dragons

Incarnate Dragons has been the talk of the blogs and forums for a while now and is very much considered to be THE deck to beat for the current meta as DragoSack and LaDD is a bitch. Almost has no bad starting hands asides from perhaps having same colored dragons in hand and GY but a single Sarco solves this problem.

Malaysia - Verz

A meta deck that could be called anti-meta as Ophion alone stops the other decks above. Most argues that Ophion can be killed easily by card effects but here's what i say...

Saw this around facebook so much that i wanted to edit it. Original picture only had two panels and I added the Xyz Reborn part. The above pic sums up basically why Verz is still on top plus its ability to main deck EEV too.

I dont claim that Verz is invincible but it does have an advantage over Incarnates. Prophecy perhaps can win over Verz easier than Incarnates as Hygro Spellbook on Toon Gemini Elf, Justice, or Shining Elf is an easy out to Ophion. Let's not forget about Injection Fairy also. Xyz Reborn is a pain but let's hope Decree stops it.

How about the ProphecyxIncarnate matchup? Advantage-wise both decks do it massively as Prophecy can plan and collect the necessary Spellbooks to get through Drago-Sack and OTK while the Incarnate can just hide behind double Drago-Sack or LaDD. Jowgen will be the winning card behind Prophecy if he can protect him. Perhaps also why Wabokus are used in multiples inside Prophecy now aside from LP safety.

This three is what i consider as the big three this format. Of course, 3axis FF and Mermails are still lurking but i feel they wont stand through a test of several rounds with so much Incarnates around. Fairly speaking, 3axis can rush the otk through Rekindlings and Mermails can push OTK too or rush into Abyssgaios with Veiler ready in hand so still cannot underestimate them.

So I said last time that I'll post my Mermail deck but I guess it really doesn't matter anymore so let's scratch it. Thanks for that and also for reading!

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Been awol for how many months now but I'm back again to live up to my blog's description that you can see above, lol.

I think explanations are needed to be given as to why I've been out blogger for a long while.
1. Career forced to live on the provinces where Yugioh is nonexistent.
2. Internet connection there is unstable so wasn't even able to play decent games online.
3. Stuck on Machina Gadget deck for a long while so nothing new to share too.

Luckily, I was able to move my career to a place much closer to home and the city so for the past few weeks I came back to the local shop regularly, got a new deck, and played more games so here's a few things I want to share. There's a lot I want to write about so I'll make this into a series of posts...

===============================================================

Lemme start with the concluded Philippines ACQ. We played before the new banlist was applied so Windups are still top tier and you can still encounter the shit turtle-ing under the protection of 2x Warning and a Judgment, but still, 104 players arrived and played for the chance to win the Thailand trip.

Not as many as other Asia countries but still impressive for this year.

As you can see, I can confidently say that Agents was the most represented deck in the tournament. Actually I expected more of Gadgets and Fire Fists decks w/o the promos and those were the ones that I made my side deck around. I also expected after the top 8 cut that all the Fire Fist decks would have advanced to Top 4 since they were complete with the promos and is the most dreaded deck in the tournament but it didnt happen. So unexpected.

Verz, another deck considered as top tier, were represented by few ppl. Plus, the inherent bad matchup of the deck against Fire Fist is hard to fix here in the Philippines as only a handful of ppl have sets of Forbidden Holy Lance and most of these ppl are running Fire Fists too. lol

Prophecies were only represented by 3-4 people, I think. Lots of ppl are unprepared for this matchup as some dont even know how absurd Divine Judgment's effect is. However, perhaps the odds were still against them as only 3-4 Prophecies are facing off against 101 other ppl. There's a big risk of them being eliminated even though I consider the deck as the most powerful currently. This is proven as 1 Prophecy deck reaches Top 16. I heard he lost because he drew badly while pitted against Raioh. lol

That's it for our Asia Qualifiers. There's still 2 mos. till the Asia Championships in Thailand so there's still a lot of time for the meta to change (if it does at all) and for me to decide which deck to use. I enjoy playing Mermail and adding Tidal (Water Incarnate Dragon) gives a whole lot of help (Ill talk about it in my next post). But im still iffy if it'd be the deck I'll use forThailand. So there.